Leigha Horton :: Greenroom
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Today is day ten of the Minnesota Fringe Festival (aka The Eleven Days Each Year When my Family Would Think I’m Dead if They Didn’t Know Any Better). Every year at this time I turn in to the unresponsive child, the bad friend, and the exhausted employee because I get so swept up in all things that constitute Fringe that I effectively tune out the rest of the world. Sometimes there’s a fine line between naïve and vacuous – if it weren’t for the NY Times delivery on the weekends, Google News during the week, and the occasional run-in with Matt Foster, I would be in a sorry state of clueless-ness that would far surpass what is deemed socially acceptable.

This is the first Fringe since 1999 that I haven’t been on stage, and while it seriously bums me out, it has also been an exciting new experience being on the Fringe staff as the Voice of the Fringe (podcasting). It’s also pretty cool waiting in line to see a show and getting asked by strangers about my or MoCW’s next stage plans without having to pimp “OUR LAST PERFORMANCE TOMORROW AT 8:30!!” It just feels like a far more mellow experience, and I dig mellow. I’ve seen shows ranging from the mediocre to the hilarious to the weep-inducing-stunner, and have accomplished this all without wearing a watch. Not wearing a watch during Fringe is a big deal. Especially for me.

Despite my stage absence, the lovely Josh and Joe have come to the rescue and asked me to be a guest on The Scrimshaw Show tonight…I guess my VotF gig is still enough presence to merit a guest appearance – totally unexpected and quite flattering. It will be a little strange going on stage with them as myself instead of a character, so I’m a tad nervous…but they’re good guys, and I’m a good sport, so I’m sure it will be fine.

I’ll report back with the sordid details.

Oh happy day! August is my absolute favorite time of year in Minnesota solely due to the 11 days of bohemian theatrical bliss known as the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Today is an especially sweet day because it not only marks the start of the 2005 Fringe Fest, it also is the day the St. Paul Pioneer Press (one of the two daily newspapers in our fair Twin Cities) came out with a Fringe preview that singles out and praises the Fringe Podcast.

Insert Horton Happy Dance here.

Take a read:

St. Paul Pioneer Press
Thursday, August 4, 2005

ATTACK OF THE POD PEOPLE

Can’t fit in any Fringe shows? Get a taste for the festival via your portable music player.

Fringe organizers recently recorded two of their traditional sneak-preview presentations in audio-file format and released them on their Web site as downloadable podcasts — radiolike shows that can be loaded on an iPod or other digital device and heard anywhere.

Podcasts number in the thousands, and many are achingly dull, but the Fringe’s podcasts are a cut above thanks in large part to their engaging host, actress Leigha Horton. Partly recorded before a live audience at two festival venues, they include performance excerpts along with artist interviews and newsy tidbits.

More podcasts are planned. One will be released just before the festival begins, said Leah Cooper, Fringe executive director and a podcast co-producer. A fourth during the festival will feature updates on how shows are selling along with “buzz and gossip,” she said. A fifth podcast will be released shortly after the festival ends.

Find the podcasts at www.fringefestival.org/podcasts.cfm. If you use Apple Computer’s iTunes software, search for “fringe” in the iTunes Music Store’s podcast directory to find and subscribe to the Fringe feed.

In a related effort, Thirst Theater miniplays once presented at a Minneapolis rooftop bar are now offered as podcasts. One is free, others are $4 apiece (a tough sell since virtually all podcasts are free). See www.fringefestival.org/thirst.cfm

So, take a listen. And then check back, because I will be updating again in the very near future with other odes to Fringe.

cosa numero uno: my first foray into audioville, Fringe Podcast #1, is officially available to the masses. One could download it from the Minnesota Fringe Festival website, and one could also download it directly from iTunes. Yes, we’ve hit The Big Time. Heck, on iTunes you can even subscribe to the Fringe Podcast via RSS feed (I’m writing like I know what this is) and get automatic updates when we post new ones. So fancy!

cosa numero dos: must. memorize. lines.

Filming for The Monster of Phantom Lake starts this weekend – a week earlier than anticipated – due to the oh-so-lucky securing of a 1955 Chevy convertible. Yes, the leading man gets to drive a snazzy car. Lucky.

Tonight was to be my night of hunkering-down and memorizing my lines before the weekend. But no, I’ve brushed-up on my procrastination ability instead – ‘tis a learn-ed skill that I have mastered well. So far tonight, I’ve sold some embarrassing CDs to the Electric Fetus, pampered my soon-to-be oft-used bicycle with chrome polish/rust remover, ate some turkey and crackers hoping it’d pass as dinner, talked to The Bean on the phone, actually managed to highlight my lines and make a scene breakdown before writing to the director to see if the shoot schedule is set in stone (so I can memorize the appropriate scenes each week before the shoots instead of all in one sitting), and wrote this entry. Alas, the hunkering is not going so well.

Tomorrow, July 1, at 12 noon, marks the launch of the newly re-designed Minnesota Fringe Festival website. This is a pretty cool thing unto itself, but what makes it even cooler is that along with the launch comes the first ever Fringe Podcast – the same Fringe Podcast for which I make my public debut as the official Voice of the Fringe.

Now this official “Voice” stuff is only an announcer-type gig, not a Carl Rove-type gig – I will not strategize with other hateful mongerish types and feed Cooper specific vocabulary to justify stupid preemptive wars that the Fringe starts in the name of saving poor, oppressed artists from juried festivals. For one thing, Cooper is a genius and doesn’t need anyone to cook up talking points for her; Secondly, war is stupid.

So anyway, within the last few weeks I’ve recorded some of Foster’s beautifully written openings/news tidbits, interviewed about twenty performers, had a Terri Gross/Fresh Air Moment with a super-insightful question about a performer’s relationship with his father, and floundered for the longest five minutes of my life in what I will heretofore call The Worst Interview Ever.

Before three weeks ago, the only people I had ever interviewed were Grandma and Grandpa Horton for a grade-school project on heritage – now I’ve not only administered interviews, I’ve administered them in front of a live audience. While I’m proud, I’m also freaked out – I can’t believe I did that and didn’t completely suck 100 percent of the time. To be fair, I’d give it more of a 40/60 sucking-to-not ratio. Download the podcast tomorrow afternoon and hear for yourself – and just when you start to think, “…hey! – that wasn’t that bad!,” remember the benefits of editing.

Had a meeting with Leah Cooper of the Minnesota Fringe Festival about various projects I’ve got my paws in right now. This will be the first year since 2000 that I will not be performing on stage at the Fringe, as my theater company, The Ministry of Cultural Warfare, is on a little hiatus.

Whilst I understand the need for the exceptionally talented Matthew Foster to regain the desire to write again, I am still sad about not getting the opportunity to be publicly snarky and applauded for it. Foster’s words make me all sparkly.

No worries, though – I will be keeping busy with quite a few less sparkly but equally Fringey projects:

1. Acting as a coordinator for the out-of-town artists. Making sure they have a place to stay, know their schedule, know where they’re going – essentially the same thing I do for the artists at the Walker (day job).
2. Acting as producer for Fringeville’s late-night talk-show/entertainment catastrophe-waiting-to-happen (Intramural Staring Contest anyone?) Fringe-a-Go-Go. Must see what those Ferarri McSpeedy boys are up to, and see if they’d be willing to host.
3. And most exciting of all – being the Voice-of-The-Fringe in its very first dive into the world of podcasting! I’ll be walking the streets (with the pimping Rik Reppe, of Staggering Toward America fame, on recording equipment) interviewing Fringe artists, audiences, sponsors, donors, directors, volunteers, and curious passers-by about many a thing. You’ll be able to download the results from fringefestival.org and listen to them on any old MP3 player.

Ta-DAA!